2022 – All News
- April’s newsletter is here! This is the Earth Day edition inspired by writers taking action every day. The featured image is of Vanessa Nakate – by Paul Wamala Ssegujja, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- April’s world eco-fiction spotlights heads to all over the African continent as we talk with Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki about his latest anthology The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction and other books.
- Hey, February is Black History Month, so let’s get started on that! I’ve compiled some resources and will continue to add to them:
- Black Lives Matters website
- Nnedi Okorafor’s article on Afro- vs. Africanfuturism
- #publishingpaidme hashtag
- More on #publishingpaidme
- Lovis Geier’s introduction into Black authors and trends in the field of eco-fiction
- Artists & Climate Change’s new series on Black Artists and Storytellers on the Climate Crisis
- My article at Medium explores authors from around the world
- A list of Reimaginings, revelations and reframings by Black authors from the Appalachian
- Tor.com recently announced Africa Risen, a new anthology of African and diasporic speculative fiction, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki (whose novella Ife-Iyoku, The Tale of Imadeyunuagbon recently won the 2020 Otherwise Award), and Zelda Knight. The collection will be available in hardcover and ebook in fall 2022. I’m so excited about this one, and the cover is gorgeous. See Sheree’s post about it on Twitter. Speaking of Ekpeki, we’ve recently been chatting about his previous work, including The Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction (2021), another newish anthology from this past September.
- Lovis Geier is doing great things over at her Ecofictology channel on YouTube. After acting as a judge on the XR Wordsmiths Solarpunk writing contest, she’s interviewing some of the teenagers who were winners of that contest. She’s talked with Katrina Eilender and Aël Magnard so far and tells me that she has one more interview coming up.
- I’m super excited about a few anthologies this year, including the above mentioned Africa Risen. The others are Terraform and Revelations: Horror Writers for Climate Action. I think a real positive in these upcoming books is that authors we know and love are tackling a changing planet in fiction, from diverse areas of speculation and genre.
- Grist began accepting submissions for its next climate-fiction contest on February 1. See more details on their Imagine 2200 contest at the website.
- The New Yorker has an article by Joshua Rothman titled Can Science Fiction Wake Us Up to Our Climate Reality? It’s a neat look at the work of Kim Stanley Robinson.
- Check out the Writers for Ukraine widget at the top of the page and join Lovis Geier on Ecofictology channel until March 15th, in the goal of writing one million words and raising donations for Ukraine.
- Turning the Tide has a new addition! Thanks so much to Carl Lindemann for information on his really cool illustrated children’s book Santa Soaked: A Story for All Ages.
- As part of our eco-games section, we’ve added some cool-looking solarpunk and Afrofuturism/Africanfuturism tabletop RPGs and an article from Screenrant covering these games.
- Now’s a great time to check out the ever-growing Dragonfly Library, an archive of excerpts from various ecologically oriented literature. Newly added is an excerpt of Eva Silverfine’s How to Bury Your Dog.
- The newest world eco-fiction spotlight heads to the Arctic, to the northwest coast of Greenland, with Girl in Ice author Erica Fenrecik. Erica has traveled to interesting places, including Greenland, to research where her novels take place. I think you’ll enjoy our chat.
- I guess birds have been on my mind. Check out my monthly Backyard Wildlife series, wherein I apologize to turkeys and loons everywhere for comparing them with a small but loud convoy of truckers. And on a more serious note, I look at recent cases of the avian flu around the world, including in my back yard.
- I’ve updated our Turning the Tide feature thanks to Kimberly Christensen who reviewed the middle-grade novel Paradise on Fire by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Also new is a link to Lovis Geier’s interviews with teenage winners of Extinction Rebellion Wordsmith’s Solarpunk Storytelling Showcase.
- Speaking of Lovis, she and I co-founded the Rewilding Our Stories Discord, and it’s grown to nearly 200 writers, readers, gamers, artists, students, podcasters, professors, and more. We recently voted to read Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed in our next book club. It’s never too late to join in the conversation! It’s important when you join the Discord to read the bot’s instructions for joining and post something about yourself in #introduce-yourself right away.
- A couple months ago I chatted with Michael Mohammed Ahmad about his work on the After Australia anthology as well as Sweatshop, a literacy movement based in Western Sydney. I want to focus more on literacy this year, so will start with talking about people who are the frontline of promoting it. Check out Sweatshop.
- ZEST Letteratura Sostenibile is an Italian journal capturing ecological thought in art and literature. My piece on water and fiction is on page 107 of their newest issue.
- BrightFlame, from our Discord, has written an excellent article about solarpunk for Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Futures. I was happy to contribute thoughts about solarpunk after having explored it for the past few years.
- News in our eco-film guide: Emmi Itäranta’s Memory of Water will be released as a film adaption on March 11 as Veden vartija. You can read more about the novel here, where Emmi and I chatted about it in 2014. Also, Alex Garland (Her, Annihilation) has a new movie out called Men. I won’t add it to the film guide just yet, because the news on what it’s about is pretty slim right now. According to what I’ve read, the main themes are isolation and men, and it’s a horror movie, albeit more human and “less science fiction” than Garland’s usual fare, though I would argue that science fiction represents human-ness more than most give it credit for. It takes place in a rural area in England, and landscape seems to be important as a mood and significant setting, so I’m watching for this one! And, finally, I just found out that Station Eleven is now a miniseries on HBO/Crave, and, after having read the book a few years ago, I’m excited to see if the miniseries stands up. From IMBD: “A post apocalyptic saga spanning multiple timelines, telling the stories of survivors of a devastating flu as they attempt to rebuild and reimagine the world anew while holding on to the best of what’s been lost.”
- I’ve added a Support Us link to Dragonfly. I do not ask for donations and will never put content behind a paywall or install ads or annoying pop-ups. But ever since our move to Nova Scotia, I’ve expanded my Dragonfly Pub business to include book review and editorial services. So check it out!
- It’s a wild Atlantic Canada winter, but, like usual, I’m dreaming of spring projects, and one of those is to build at least one bat box. Read more about that idea in my Backyard Wildlife series.
- In January’s Indie Corner is the fascinating story of Barbara Newman and her new YA eco-fantasy novel The Dreamcatcher Codes.
- New in the World Eco-fiction Spotlight series is a look at George RR Martin’s The Beautiful and Dangerous Ecology in A Song of Fire and Ice.
- I’ve added some new categories to the database, including flora and fungi. I also changed the previous “animals” category to fauna. The idea of fungi fiction has been on my mind for a while, but it wasn’t until I did a DORKS talk with an awesome guest, Autumn Anglin, that I learned a lot more about fungi as well as her own science and art, which is absolutely inspiring. I told her that I’d try to put together a list of fungi fiction, so this is a start!
- Here’s my review of Don’t Look Up. I really enjoyed this film, as did my husband. I think ordinary people are liking this movie far more than some paid critics, according to the difference between sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB/Google reviews, the latter of which has positive ratings of about 80% average.
- I did a presentation with DORKS on eco-fiction on December 18th. DORKS is a new series affiliated with Rice University. This week’s topic was science & art! I talked about ecologically oriented fiction, and Autumn Anglin discussed all things about fungi and art & citizen science. Watch on YouTube.
- Thanks to Sara Barkat for joining the Dragonfly Library with an excerpt of her new collection of short stories: The Shivering Ground. Also new is a sample of Clara Hume’s Bird Song: A Novella.
- In the Rewilding Our Stories Discord, our membership keeps growing; now we have more than 175 members. In our book club, until January 21, we’re suggesting our next book to read, with a vote to follow shortly, so feel free to join in. The moderators are also coming up with some exciting new initiatives behind the scenes, which we’ll announce soon. To join, see https://discord.com/invite/txgJNVg. We also just started a solarpunk channel!
- On a personal note, I opened a new author website at clarahume.com. I moved all my blog posts (going back to 2014!) over there and have teased about my next novel, Elk Stories.
- Occasionally someone posts a really cool book in our Discord, so I was happy to discover Chlorophobia: An Eco-Horror Anthology, edited by AR Ward. It was published by Ghost Walker Press this past summer. I’m currently reading it, and it’s intriguing, so I’d recommend it.
- Grist’s FIX climate lab recently posted Pop Culture Can No Longer Ignore Our Climate Reality. Having run this site going on nine years now, I am pretty sure that culture has been absolutely immersed in art about climate change, including in literature and films. Did I mention that the database reached over 900 books last month? But, I still agree with Grist that pop culture has to take this on and continue to introduce the reality of our ecologically changing world to everyday knowledge and engagement.
- At LitHub, Ingrid Horrocks writes Dissolving Genre: Toward Finding Ways to Write About the World, while reimagining the relationship between the human and non-human.
- Recently a form went up to getting on the mailing list for this coming spring’s free online conference Black Literature vs. Climate Emergency. Confirmed presenters include Emily Raboteau, Aya de Leon, Bernard Ferguson, Kevin Henderson, Ashia Ajani, Aniya Butler, and more to come! The conference is hosted by Poetry for the People and the UC Berkeley Black Studies Collaboratory.
- Solarpunk Magazine‘s inaugural issue went up in early January and includes an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson and scientist Nina Munteanu’s article about eco-fiction.
- The Erasmus Student and Alumni Alliance (ESAA) has a new podcast project called No Place Green Enough. From their site:
No Place Green Enough” Podcast – Entertainment or education? Listen and decide for yourself! If movies like “Don’t Look Up” and “Dune” made you think about the world and its systems, “No Place Green Enough” will weave the same thoughts, in the form of a podcast!
- In The Nation, Clinton Williamson talks about “The Puzzle of Eco-fiction” as he writes on George R. Stewart’s Storm giving us an ideal model for how to approach the narrative challenges of a story about climate catastrophe.
- Mark Athitakis, from the LA Times, lists Ash Davidson’s Damnation Spring as one of his five favorite books of 2021.
2021
Note that the Rewilding Our Stories Discord perm invite has been changed to: https://discord.gg/txgJNVg.
Our News
- A new book review is up of Craig Wilson’s Kesterson, a novel based upon the true fate of a migratory bird refuge in 1980s southern California being poisoned by water drainage by nearby farmlands.
- Turning the Tide and Indie Corner join together in late December with a spotlight on We Have Everything to Say! by Sonia Myers.
- In December’s Backyard Wildlife post, with the help of Nova Scotia Canada, I catalog most main categories of wildlife they list and talk about what we’ve seen in our meadow and in local travel.
- December’s world eco-fiction spotlight is on Pola Oloixarac and her novel Dark Constellations, which was one of those rare books I just couldn’t put down. Read more here.
- Find some new links in Turning the Tide: A new article is out from Book Riot: 15 Helpful Sustainability Books for Young Environmentalists, and my book Finn’s Tree Alphabet is out now!
- In this November’s 2021 Indie Corner, I rebooted a wonderful conversation I had a few years ago with Jennifer Harrington, author and illustrator at Eco Books 4 Kids. The interview explores her children’s book Spirit Bear as well as the then looming threat of the Northern Gateway Pipeline project, which was squashed by the government, though talks by Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole want to revive the project.
- A new review is up of Eliza Mood’s O Man of Clay, a futuristic horror-climate-change novel set in North East England and Siberia.
- Check out our newest Backyard Wildlife post, all about white-tailed deer and COVID-19.
- November’s World Eco-fiction Spotlight shines on author, editor, and director Michael Mohammed Ahmad. I talk with him about his work in promoting literacy with the Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement, his novels, and so much more. I was moved deeply by this interview, and I think you’ll enjoy it too.
- Check our Climate and Ecological Films section for some new movies/docs out this fall. Quite a run of new films came around in the summer and early fall, so check out the news archives for those. We watched Dune the night it came out, and thought it was pretty awesome and reflective of the novel as much as possible for part 1. Another recent film we saw was Finch, with Tom Hanks. It’s not really a movie about AGW climate change, though I’ve seen it misrepresented as such. However, I would call it eco-fiction because solar flare activity has burned through the ozone in parts of the world and forever changed ecological systems everywhere. At the heart, it’s an emotional tearjerker about a guy, his dog, and a robot named Jeff.
- My newest children’s illustrated alphabet book is out on November 26 and is already available via pre-order at some retail outlets (just Google it)! The Adventures of Finn Wilder is a new series focused on outdoor adventures, bringing the beauty and importance of nature into children’s lives while also educating and inspiring them. The first book, Finn’s Tree Alphabet, goes A-Z with different trees from all over the world. Descriptions elicit wonder as well as laughter. Let me know if you need a review copy.
- Dragonfly has a new section covering video and other games that explore environmental themes and nature. Check it out here.
- Kim Stanley Robinson was invited to COP26 to talk about how science fiction exploring climate change, like his novel The Ministry for the Future.
- Find some new links in Turning the Tide: Lauren James writes about eco-fiction for kids at Climate Fiction Writers League; she talks with authors Vashti Hardy and Tom Huddleston. Also, Suffolk Library recommends and loans out some climate change books for children.
- Click here for a compilation of author quotes rounded up from my interviews going back to 2013. There’s still a lot to add, so stay tuned!
- For the October World Eco-fiction spotlight, I interviewed Premee Mohamed about her newest novel, The Annual Migration of Clouds. Waubgeshig Rice, another favorite Canadian author (Moon of the Crusted Snow), said of Clouds: “A riveting look at a dire future. The climate crisis is real, and The Annual Migration of Clouds is a must-read fiction.”
- I talk with Yanas Chewns, of Geekoscopy, about Dragonfly.eco and the concept of eco-fiction.
- A new Backyard Wildlife series is available to read. Read more about coyotes, corn, and turning leaves–and my favorite season, autumn.
- I recently received a gift card from my sister, so used it to buy two books. One is Fungi, an anthology, edited by Orrin Grey and Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I highly recommend this book! Inside are authors Jeff VanderMeer, Laird Barron, Nick Mamatas, W.H. Pugmire, Lavie Tidhar, Ann K.Schwader, Jesse Bullington, Molly Tanzer and Simon Strantzas. The other book is Weird Women, weird stories showcasing the forgotten female horror writers from 1852-1923. I haven’t gotten to that book yet, so stay tuned.
- Some September films: The Dead Don’t Die (remarkable ensemble cast and environmental commentary in this deadpan comedy), and Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror–a wonderful exploration of how natural landscape manifests in what’s known as folk horror.
- Thanks to Book Riot for linking to our site when exploring the wonderful field of BIPOC eco-fiction.
- A new post in the Backyard Wildlife series focuses on apples, whiskey, and other late-summer adventures.
- The September Indie Corner spotlight shines on Cai Emmons and her new novel Sinking Islands.
- In Turning the Tide is news about Piers Torday’s newest novel, Before the Wild. Also, Kimberly Christensen reviews Eric Smith’s The Girl and the Grove.
- I’m a mammaw, even at my totally young age! The new baby, Finn Wilder, was born on September 23. Some of my next writing projects will be for him. The Adventures of Finn Wilder has a tree alphabet coming soon. See the website for more information. This series will focus on outdoor adventures, bringing educational, imaginative, and funny stories that connect children to nature.
- Happy 9th birthday to Dragonfly on August 13th! I previously teased about a new Medium article to help celebrate the day–and that is still in the works–but I decided to celebrate with announcement of my new novel, which is taking precedence in my newest NaNoWriMo goal.
- This month’s world eco-fiction spotlight is on Venetia Welby and her novel Dreamtime, which takes place mostly in Japan. The novel is brilliantly complex, emotional, and frightening. Venetia’s writing gets deep and challenges the reader to think about consequences of our way of life.
- Maybe I picked the wrong time (during our birthday month) to reorganize the way I bring up book data at the site, which feeds into the database and is accomplished through a Goodreads API, but it has always bothered me that authors feel forced to use Amazon, which has a bad track record with monopolizing the book-selling industry, tax avoidance, animal cruelty, antisemitic content, sweat shop atmosphere in its warehouse, and so much more. Then its founder, billionaire Jeff Bezos, recently spent millions on a personal journey to space that signified a monumental act of frivolity. On a personal note, as a book publisher and author, it’s not really possible to not include Amazon in distribution outlets, but I’ve already stopped linking to it for Dragonfly Pub’s titles, removed my Kindle versions in Amazon’s store, become an affiliate at Bookshop–which supports indie booksellers–and become a user at Storygraph, an alternative to Goodreads. Amazon also bought out Goodreads, after I began using the plug-in for data. So I want to move away from that and find a new API that will link to a more neutral book data site. So, thanks for your patience as I figure this out!
- I have joined XR Nova Scotia and am excited to figure out where that will lead. Sign up at your locality.
- Check out my review of Tobin Marks’ awesome new sci-fi novel Ark of the Apocalypse, which puts global warming at its focus.
- I interviewed Emma Reynolds about her new children’s book Amara and the Bats as part of Dragonfly’s Indie Corner author and Turning the Tide spotlights. In early September, watch for a new interview with Cai Emmons.
- In the Backyard Wildlife series, in July, I talk about the weird and dangerous weather we’ve been having in Canada as well as new things I’ve seen on our property, including a tiny mouse and a tiny snake. I also talk about how Elsa’s post-tropical storm wind and rain tried to topple our corn and caused our power to go out all night.
- I had the wonderful opportunity to chat with three streamers: Yanas Kisten (Geekoscopy), Lovis Geier (Ecofictology), and Forrest Brown (Stories for Earth). These podcasts or YouTube series covering how storytelling, science, and art merge are fascinating.
- It’s the perfect time to join our Rewilding Our Stories Discord right now. We have an influx of new members, bringing us to over 120 now.
- July’s world eco-fiction spotlight was on Matt Bell, whose novel Appleseed was published on the 13th. It was great to chat with him about storytelling in games vs. written fiction, how he writes from speculating and imagining the future, and who some of his nature-writing influences are.
- Newly linked in the Dragonfly excerpts library: Thanks to Rowan Kilduff for sending in a new nature poem titled Red Cedar – Long Life Maker. Also, Gizmodo has a new excerpt of Tlotlo Tsamaase’s story Botswana.
- June’s Indie Corner author was Paul S. Piper, whose new novel The Wolves of Mirr shows his passion about wolves in the West.
- Dragonfly’s June World Eco-fiction spotlight was on Neus Figueras and her children’s novel Lorac, which was inspired by the author’s restoration of coral reef’s off the coast of Myanmar.
- Airing on YouTube, June 5 was a Cymera Festival climate writers’ talk I sat in with the awesome authors Bijal Vachharajani, Lauren James, and James Bradley.
- Kimberly Christensen reviews Sherri L. Smith’s YA novel Orleans.
- It’s a great time to join our Rewilding Our Stories Discord right now. We have an influx of new members, bringing us to over 100 now, and we’re also voting on the next book to read in the book club.
- June’s Indie Corner author is Paul S. Piper, whose new novel The Wolves of Mirr shows his passion about wolves in the West.
- Kimberly Christensen reviews Sherri L. Smith’s YA novel Orleans.
- Look forward to an interview with Matt Bell, who talks about his upcoming novel Appleseed as well as a chat with Venetia Welby about her novel Dreamtime.
- Airing on YouTube, June 5 was a Cymera Festival climate writers’ talk I sat in with the awesome authors Bijal Vachharajani, Lauren James, and James Bradley.
- Newly linked in the Dragonfly excerpts library: Thanks to Rowan Kilduff for sending in a new nature poem titled Red Cedar – Long Life Maker. Also, Gizmodo has a new excerpt of Tlotlo Tsamaase’s story Botswana.
- Dragonfly’s June World Eco-fiction spotlight is on Neus Figueras and her children’s novel Lorac, which was inspired by the author’s restoration of coral reef’s off the coast of Myanmar.
- I’m a member of the Climate Fiction Writers League and recently on their blog talked about YA and children’s fiction that’s highly ecologically oriented. I looked back at my own writing and inspirations as well as interviewed Fiona Barker, author of the new children’s picture book Setsuko and the Song of the Sea.
- I extend an ongoing invitation to join the Rewilding Our Stories Discord. We’re writing tomorrow’s nature novels and using tools like NaNoWriMo to help us. In our first Book Club event, we read Robin Wall Kimmerer‘s Braiding Sweetgrass, a book we immensely enjoyed and one that relates to us personally in several unique ways.
- Watch for Kimberly Christensen’s review of Sherri L. Smith’s Orleans in the latter part of June.
- In late May, I posted a new Backyard Wildlife post, which illustrates our spring meadow, new fauna in the yard, and things we’ve planted, plus a hidden song sparrow’s nest.
- May’s world eco-fiction spotlight is on Yaba Badoe and her novel Wolf Light.
- Featured in the Indie Corner is Jaimee Wriston and her novel How Not to Drown. I can’t lie. I am so intrigued by this novel!
- Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Powers’ upcoming novel Bewilderment film rights were sold to Black Bear Pictures, Plan B.
- According to Variety, Paul McAuley’s novel Austral is getting an epic series adapation from Circle of Confusion Television Studios and ITV Studios’ Big Talk Productions.
- Tor.com has another list of Ten Eco-fiction Novels. by Nina Munteanu.
- Though it was published around Earth Day, these novels boosted by NPR are for every day.
- Book Riot lists three new dystopian novels of the environmental kind.
- Game Rant reports a reboot of Perfect Dark, this with an eco-sci-fi twist.
- On May 26th is a talk called Children’s Fiction and the Climate Crisis, with Ele Fountain, Hannah Gold, and Piers Torday–hosted by Pushkin’s Children’s Books and Tales on Moon Lane.
- Rewilding Our Stories began a book club in May and is now reading the wonderful book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
- The Discord community built an Earth Day: What We’re Reading list from our many conversations. Also, check out Dragonfly’s new Book Recommendations section!
- Ecology Action Centre’s spring magazine presents my article celebrating Canadian authors of environmental fiction.
- In April’s world eco-fiction feature, I talk with Jamaican author Diana McCaulay, whose novel Daylight Come is set in the future on a fictional Jamaican Island, Bajacu.
- The April Indie Corner spotlight is on Anne Coray, author of Lost Mountain. She lives in Alaska, whose natural beauty inspires her writing.
- My April post for the Backyard Wildlife series looks at the very early spring when we are pre-planning our garden and tree-planting.
- I get so many questions about genres that reflect our natural world, and there’s quite a bit of confusion since often news media isn’t always consistent. Here’s a guide I wrote to help that confusion!
- Our Discord, Rewilding Our Stories, has a new daily writing goal channel. Check it out and join on in!
- Thanks to Kimberly Christensen for her review of Sim Kern’s Depart, Depart.
- The March world ecofiction spotlight is on Glendy Vanderah. I chatted with her about her science background and her two wildly popular novels, Where the Forest Meets the Stars and The Light Through the Leaves. In Glendy’s novels, nature is central.
- I’ve talked about my newest novella quite a bit: Bird Song. If you like the ecological uncanny and Greek mythology, with a YA slant and a touch of romance, this might be for you. I’m running a free Kindle promotion from March 12-16 to boost it.
- The March Indie Corner spotlight is on Claire Datnow, teacher and YA/teen author.
- Have you ever noticed I write a column called Backyard Wildlife? That’s right. A year ago, just as the pandemic hit, my husband and I bought a new house 4,000 km away from our old home in Vancouver. We’re rewilding our yard and meadow, and I thought it would be interesting to document the process. Occasionally I talk about environmental issues around us in Nova Scotia. My latest entry is all about the long, cold winter.
- I’ve taken on a volunteer role from Climate Fiction Writers League, run by the awesome author Lauren James. I’m doing social media outreach and just began a new Facebook group. Join on in! And I’m tweeting at the league’s Twitter.
- Our Discord has taken off. It’s all about Rewilding Our Stories. Over 80 members have joined. Check it out and join on in! Be sure to message one of the mods as the instructions ask you to do. You won’t see the entire community until we approve you and know that you’re not a spam-bot. Getting stuck on that new novel or short story, or just want to write more? Make time most every Sunday with us at 3:00 pm EST as we run a word-sprint NaNoWriMo style.
- Speaking of Discord, two of our members–cofounder Lovis Geier, who runs Ecofictology, and Forrest Brown, founder of the Stories for Earth podcast–fan out some of the discussions we’ve been having on Discord to a streamed book review of Richard Powers’ Overstory.
- Since 2018, Artists and Climate Change has been re-running my world ecofiction series spotlights in their Wild Author series. I’m honored to have recently been promoted to a part of their core team.
- Dragonfly.eco’s February spotlights include a wonderful chat with Motswana author Tlotlo Tsamaase and an interview with indie children’s book author Ryan Mizzen.
- Lovis Geier interviews me about the ecological weird, and I try to explain it! See her Ecofictology YouTube.
- Coming soon: A look at Canadian ecofiction via a magazine in Nova Scotia.
In Other News
- Some of Octavia Butler’s work is being adapted to the silver screen. According to Vanity Fair, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is producing the pilot for a series adaptation of Kindred for FX, Issa Rae and J.J. Abrams will produce a Fledgling pilot for HBO. Viola Davis’s production company, JuVee, will join Amazon and Wanuri Kahiu to adapt Wild Seed, Ava DuVernay and Amazon are also working on Dawn. And Garrett Bradley will write and direct her interpretation of Parable of the Sower as a feature film.
- I loved the movie Silent Night (see below), but in December, we get yet another movie about climate change. The second, Don’t Look Up, directed by Adam McKay, is coming to Netflix and theaters on December 24th. I’m honestly so stoked about it and will report back later. First, it has a huge cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Timothee Chalamet, Jonah Hill, Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett, Rob Morgan, Kid Cudi, Himesh Patel, Mark Rylance, Ariana Grande, and many more. Though in the movie, a comet is heading to Earth and has 100% of killing everyone, scientists just can’t get anyone to take it seriously. Sound familiar? In Reuters, DiCaprio said that the movie is “a satirical look at how the media and politicians treat climate issues. The plot sees two lowly astronomers (played by DiCaprio and Lawrence) trying to warn a world that doesn’t seem to care about a huge comet on course to destroy the Earth in six months time.” Check out the trailer here.
- Green Stories in the UK often runs writing competitions. Their current one, on adult novels, closes December 30, 2021. Check their site often as they run new competitions throughout the year. Entries must conform to the green stories criteria of showing a positive vision of what a sustainable society might look like or include green solutions, policies, or characters in the context of an otherwise mainstream story. The stories can be subtle.
- The new Silent Night movie is one of the best fiction films I’ve seen about ecological disaster. What starts as a dark comedy ends up as a thoughtful and moving drama that puts all of humanity’s weaknesses and strengths into one last Christmas, and the last night on Earth. Silent Night is a cautionary tale of climate change as Nevil Shute’s On the Beach was of nuclear disaster in the 1950s. And both stories pack an emotional punch.
- Jessie Greengrass’s climate-change novel The High House is one of the books shortlisted for the 2021 Costa Books Awards. The story is about Britain experiencing a devastating flood; meanwhile, thousands of animals and people have been experiencing devastating floods in British Columbia’s interior.
- Slate Magazine reviews Neal Stephenson’s newest novel, Termination Shock. “Unlike the impending apocalypse Stephenson depicted in Seveneves, a disaster that unites the planet, the climate crisis is a complex system in which every possible remedy produces winners and losers. The latter can be expected to fight back.”
- Check out some new and upcoming books: The Last Woman in the World by Inga Simpson, The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard, The Hungry Earth by Nicholas Kaurmann, Milk Teeth by Helene Bukowski, The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed, Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson, Bewilderment by Richard Powers, Every Leaf a Hallelujah by Ben Okri, and Canyonlands Carnage by Scott Graham.
- Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower is being adapted to a musical theater event created by Toshi Reagon and Bernice Johnson Reagon, directed by Eric Ting. The event takes place in February 2022 at the Krannert Center, and tickets go on sale January 12, 2022. See the Krannert Center for more information.
- Kim Stanley Robinson was invited to COP26 to talk about how science fiction exploring climate change, like his novel The Ministry for the Future.
- Joy Williams’ Harrow wins the 2021 Kirkus Prize for fiction. “She practices…camouflage, except that instead of adapting to its environment, Williams’s imagination, by remaining true to itself, reveals new colorations in the ecology around her.” -A.O. Scott, The New York Times Book Review
- Emma Watson posted a solarpunk slideshow to her 61 million followers. Way to get the word out! One thing that she states is that solarpunk is not just utopia, which is a world we cannot obtain. Solarpunk is about the best world that we can get to, which is a great distinction.
- Wow, this talk with Nnedi Okorafor and one of Matt Bell’s creative writing classes at ASU is enlightening. Learn more about Nnedi’s successful stories, including her novel Lagoon. She talks about world-building in science fiction, Africanfuturism, the ocean environment, and so much more.
- Samanta Schweblin’s Fever Dream has been adapted to film and came out on Netflix on October 13. See the trailer. I rate this movie a 5/5. It’s incredibly well adapted and captures the mood and mystery of the novel.
- Dune is coming October 21. Check out the trailer here.
- Want to join a solarpunk writer’s workshop? The Kingston Frontenac Public Library is offering such a workshop on Zoom with local author Jerri Jerreat. “This writing workshop will focus on creating a convincing future in solarpunk, a type of eco-fiction set in a future where we’ve somehow managed to deal with today’s global environmental crisis.”
- Solarpunk Magazine is a new mag envisioning a new world, with a successful kickstarter out now. They are accepting submissions for their first issue between November 1-14. “Solarpunk Magazine is publishing utopian science fiction, working against dystopia, so more power to them. Kick ass and use hope like a club to beat back the pessimists.” -Kim Stanley Robinson. An interview with KSR will be in their first issue as well.
- A global planetary danger, an attack on the environment that seems inexorable, with the only hope placed in a mission to heaven. These are the assumptions of The Prism, the first complete graphic novel for Matteo De Longis, an ecofiction that recalls concepts and situations of the most classic science fiction. See Fumetto Logica (Italian) for more.
- The New York Times has an article about Bewilderment, coming September 21, by Richard Powers, author of The Overstory. Once again, Powers writes about the climate crisis. “If you look at contemporary fiction, the stories that these books tell have no agency except humans,” the author said.
- Love My Books’ September newsletter spotlights several children’s books that take action on climate change.
- So the IPCC report came out, and Emily Watkins’ newsletter “Heated” helps us to understand it better. Ars Technica also has a good summary with understandable graphs, and NASA just released a new, interactive sea-level-rise tool, which uses updated Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) scenarios.
- Coming in late summer is Lisa Joy’s Reminiscence, starting Rebecca Ferguson, Thandiwe Newton, Hugh Jackman, and Natalie Martinez.
- NK Jemisin’s The Broken Earth Trilogy is being being adapted to film! See our film section.
- Both Grist and Outside Magazine have been focused lately on climate change and ecologically based fiction. Check them out!
- According to the Manila Times, Penguin is publishing an eco-fiction anthology titled Revenge of Gaia.
- Nnedi Okorafor talks about science fiction and the future of Africa. We should not assume that future Africa won’t lead or even won’t exist, she states.
- Ursula K. LeGuin’s novel The Dispossessed is being adapted by film! See Tor.com for more information.
- Several new novels are out and look exciting. Here are some we are looking forward to: Matrix by Lauren Groff, The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak, Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney, The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel, Harrow by Joy Williams, Dreamtime by Venetia Welby, Bewilderment by Richard Powers, and Darklands by Arnav Das Sharma.
- Pedro Neves Marques at E-flux Journal speaks to Anishinaabe cultural critic Grace Dillon, who talks about key concepts within Indigenous-led science fiction and offers a genealogy of the term “Indigenous Futurisms.”
- Phew boy, I guess we’re all scratching our heads about Florida Governer DeSantis enacting dumb Covid health crisis decisions that are directly causing thousands of deaths (hitting records, too). Well, recently Stephen King, while promoting his new novel Billy Summers, lashed out at the governer on Twitter. According to the Herald-Tribune: “DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, responded to King’s comments by pointing out that he’s a fiction writer. “I do not understand why the public or reporters would look to fiction writers for insights on infectious disease and environmental issues,” Pushaw said in an email.” Maybe it’s because most of us have more knowledge about these things than an actual governer and we’re not actively executing laws that cause death to people?
- Input Mag has a new article about video games and the Anthropocene: “In games, the environmental crisis is just another bedtime story.”
- The New York Review has author Nathaniel Rich talking about George R. Stewart’s perfect Storm.
- Tor lists five classic SFF novels about environmental disaster, so put on your retro shoes.
- According to Polygon, “There’ll be new Dune stories in the future, no matter how the movie does.” Good news!
- July 7 was the pub day for editor Christy Tidwell’s Ecohorror Stories in the Anthropocene.
- The Tomorrow War, starring Chris Pratt, came to Netflix on June 2.
- It’s wonderful to see Towne Book Center book buyer Marielle Orff listing some of her favorite middle-grade fiction for eco-warriors.
- Kim Stanley Robinson talks about utopian fiction at The Nation.
- Anne Coray’s novel Lost Mountain is spotlighted in this Anchorage Daily News article. You might recognize her as one of our recent indie authors.
- Northwest Territories’ author Katłįà Lafferty has been nominated for an Indigenous Voices Award for her debut novel, Land-Water-Sky / Ndè–Tı–Yat’a. More at CBC.
- Based on the same-named comic by Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth is a sweet fairy tale series, morphed into the world of the wild, now on Netflix.
- Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Powers’ upcoming novel Bewilderment film rights were sold to Black Bear Pictures, Plan B.
- According to Variety, Paul McAuley’s novel Austral is getting an epic series adapation from Circle of Confusion Television Studios and ITV Studios’ Big Talk Productions. It’s “an expansive drama set in Antarctica during the year 2098.
- If you haven’t checked out Turning the Tide: The Youngest Generation, please do. Recently a great article came out in TeenVouge, by Mitzi Jonelle Tan. She says, when speaking of climate activism and the arts, “There are very serious reasons to be creative, as activism can be exhausting and dangerous. Here in the Philippines, activists can get arrested without a warrant, disappear without a trace, and be killed in broad daylight. Campaigning in more subtle, creative ways keeps us safe.” #Fridaysforfuture
- “Afrofuturism and the sex life of coral–inside the wild mind of Ellen Gallagher,” in The Guardian, talks about her ecological art. “There are just five paintings on display at London’s Hauser & Wirth gallery, but they embody two years of ‘hard, physical labour’ and decades of thought, plugging into a deeply personal mythology that she has developed from Afrofuturist fiction, marine biology, random song lyrics and the struggles of her artist forebears to give black people a proper place in the world.”
- Lovis Geier discusses her top-ten eco-fiction novels on her Ecofictology YouTube channel. Lovis is growing in popularity as a leading voice in this field. She also co-runs the Rewilding Our Stories Discord with me.
- Today, many fiction authors are including the climate crisis as a crucial focus in their stories, but these novels go way back. Climate change is not a new concept, and some of the earliest novels based on modern science about anthropogenic global warming go back to the 1970s. The Los Angeles Times has an article out this month, “Review: What a queer Taiwanese 1995 sci-fi novel got right about the future,” which explores author Chi Ta-wei’s newly translated 1995 novel The Membranes.
- The New Republic looks at the mother of Afrofuturism, Octavia Butler, and how her 1998 novel, the Parable of the Sower, wisely predicted our current times as a time of climate change, refugee crises, and more.
- The Syndey Morning Herald looks at two new women’s novels, including Clare Moleta’s Unsheltered. The setting, according to an author’s note, is “Australian, but not Australia”. Climate change has rendered much of the country uninhabitable.
- Jeff VanderMeer’s Hummingbird Salamander is out, and it’s getting great reviews. Linking his Twitter, because he usually links to reviews and you get to also see the great stories of wildlife in his back yard.
- Book Riot offers another eco-fiction reading list, this one concentrating on thrillers.
- Migros Museum in Switzerland is featuring an art eco-fiction gallery until May 9th.
- I had a chance to listen to a talk by Jaimee Wriston Colbert, Binghampton University’s lecture series. Her talk was on “Giving Nature a Voice: Jaimee Wriston Colbert on Writing Eco-fiction.” I’ve interviewed her twice before about her novels Wild Things and Vanishing Acts. Look forward to another interview soon on her upcoming novel.
- Arizona State University has a new solarpunk anthology, Cities of Light. Free for download.
- Another novel I’ve got on my list is this one: Omar El-Akkad has a passionate review of Imbolo Mbue’s How Beautiful We Were, in the New York Times.
- I’ve got Jeff VanderMeer’s Hummingbird Salamander on pre-order. Linked from my Dragonfly Library is also a new excerpt of the novel from EW.
- The Los Angeles Times looks at Charlotte McConaghy’s Migrations, which Claire Foy and Benedict Cumberbatch are teaming up to adapt.
- For Black History Month, NPR spotlights Octavia Butler in How Octavia Butler’s Sci-Fi Dystopia Became A Constant In A Man’s Evolution.
- Yale News talks about faculty member Cajetan Iheka in Novel Perspective: How Literature Helps Us Re-think Environmental Threats.
- Michigan Daily introduces Faith Merino’s debut Cormorant Lake, a story told exclusively by women.
- Richard Powers’ The Overstory is coming to Netflix? Game of Thrones creators are adapting it? Count me in! See Variety.
- Can the novel document the present in real time? A look at author Ali Smith’s quartet series, which includes such themes as Brexit and climate change. See The Nation.
- Sci-fi/fantasy author N.K. Jemisin, who weaves environmental themes into her novels, is slated to be featured in SXSW, along with the amazing Stacy Abrams. I’m so into this. See The Austin Chronicle.
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Amazon to adapt another Octavia Butler series: Wild Seed, with Nnedi Okorafor co-writing. See Comic Years.
